


Fixation

by thelittlesnape



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hermione holds her own, Hermione is a strong individual, Hermione is of age, Love Stories, Reluctant Love, Severus Snape is a sexy snarky bastard, and under covers, falling in love over books
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:09:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27407857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelittlesnape/pseuds/thelittlesnape
Summary: Hermione Granger is offered the chance to work at Tomes & Scrolls. What she doesn't realize is that she would be working with a man nearly synonymous with sex. Will the young woman's sexual awakening lead to some curious decision-making? Perhaps, she'll end up strictly fixated. Yeah right, Hermione is on a fast-track to obsession and so a dance between two-reluctant spirits begins.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	1. Hermione's Choice

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! Here is my standard Disclaimer... 
> 
> \-- Disclaimer: None of the characters nor any other features of this story are that of my own. Simply borrowing them for a short fanfiction. -- 
> 
> Now, I'm hoping you'll enjoy this short story. It will be upwards of ten chapters long with updates every Thursday/Friday... Well, that's my goal. Please keep me on task.

**_Prologue:_ **

__It happened overnight. One moment it wasn’t, the next it was…_ _

__And, oh it was strong._ _

__I_ _ __t swept in like a gentle tide but overwhelmed like a rip current._ _

__Hermione Granger was purely fixated upon one surly, snarky and quite seductive Severus Snape._ _

**__Chapter One:_ _ **

Hermione Granger wiped dirty sweat from her brow as she scrubbed the floors of Grimmauld Place. Her entire was streaked with bits of dirt from her aggressive tackling of the chore. While Kreacher surely could handle the task, the grumpy house elf was never one to take orders from the “uppity Mudblood” he often called her under his breath.

Early on, Hermione learned to pick her battles with the elf as to not place stress upon herself nor be tempted to gift him a pair of clothes. It was up to Harry whether or not the house elf stayed upon at Grimmauld.

Just as she dipped the sponge back into the bucket, Harry’s owl flew in through the open window and chirped as it dropped a letter next to her.

“Oh! For me? Who could this possibly be from, huh, Nugget,” Hermione said as she reached for the jar of treats on the counter for Nugget. The owl happily took the treat and flew off to its own comfy quarters in Grimmauld’s owlery.

Hermione saw the infamous seal of Hogwarts on the letter and ripped it open with great excitement – expecting either a message from the Headmaster remarking on her help of the summer with rebuilding the war-torn school or perhaps a missive asking her to come back to organize the library.

The letter read:

_Dear Miss Granger, It is with great excitement that we extend to you an invitation to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for an eighth year of rigorous academic instruction. At the end of your eighth year, should you return, you will be tasked with taking your N.E.W.T.s._

_S_ _hould you excel, you will graduate our academy and enter the Wizarding world with marks that will set you up for a most extraordinary post-academia life._

_A second letter has been attached detailing the preliminary items you will need at the start of your year. Should you accept matriculation, you will receive further instruction on what materials will be needed. We expect an answer no later than two weeks from the postmark of this letter. May you have a lovely summer holiday._

_Best wishes, Interim Headmaster Minerva McGonagall_

Before she had time to read the letter for a quadruple time whilst sat at the kitchen table at Grimmauld Place, Harry’s owl was flying off with her acceptance letter. Speaking of the young man, he entered the room with a surprising amount of groceries hanging off of arm as though he had forgotten he was a wizard. Sometimes, Harry loved living life the Muggle way which endeared Hermione to him even more.

"I just accepted returning for eighth year, Harry!" Hermione excitedly said as she rushed to help him remove the bags from his arms and place them onto the high counters of the kitchen. Harry let out a heavy breath and a muffled thank you before computing what Hermione had just said.

"Congrats, Mione! We all knew you would return if given a choice," Harry said as he started to 

“Thank you so much, Harry!” Hermione gushed as she rushed forward to squeeze her best friend into a hug that left his torso numb from the strength.

“Hermione, it was just an owl. You can use my owl whenever you want, you know that,” Harry answered as he straightened his ever-crooked glasses.

“No, thank you for being supportive… You’re the brother I never had, and I appreciate it more than you could ever know,” she explained, just a smidge sheepish in her delivery. Hermione and Harry had made an agreement to stop being so overly forthright in their feelings as it had developed into somewhat of a gratefulness competition whenever one of the two gushed. In the most charming manner, Harry ruffled his own hair and shrugged.

“Anything for you, sis. Now, let’s see about heading to Hogsmeade to get you what you’ll be needing for your eighth year!” Harry said with a wink as he snatched the letter off the table. Hermione clapped her hands and squeezed Harry into another glasses-crooking hug.

**__SSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHG_ _ **

__T__ ry as she might, Hermione just couldn’t resist a ‘quick’ stop to Tomes and Scrolls and gasped when she found that they were hiring. In all of her years in the wizarding world, she had never seen such a sign at this store. Chomping at the bits, she burst through the door with the day’s third wind of excitement.

There was no one to be seen so she took a steadying breath and decided to distract herself by checking out some of the latest non-fiction arrivals.

Time passed and it was only a gruff, “It’s yours, if you want it,” that brought her back to reality. Attention reluctantly torn from the book she had found; Hermione turned and only nearly dropped the book in shock. There stood former professor Severus Snape, leaning against a stack that housed tomes on the subject of potioneering. How fitting.

What was even more fitting was the man himself. His previously long hair was cut to shoulder length but he had it brushed back away from his face and tucked behind his ears. Instead of his usual wears, he was clothed in tight fitting black slacks and a midnight blue button-up shirt paired with what appeared to be slightly ratty midnight blue combat boots. He had a cloak haphazardly thrown upon his shoulders to complete the look.

“Profes—Mr. Snape.” Hermione stuttered as she placed the book on the table behind her. “I hadn’t decided if I wanted the book… Just yet.”

“Well, good thing I wasn’t talking about the book. I presume you saw the sign on the storefront, yes?” He waited for her to nod. “Well then, the job – it’s yours if you want it. I need someone I can rely on to take care of the books and customers..." Severus finished explaining as if it wasn’t the wildest notion he’d ever had.

He stepped forward, closer to Hermione, and for the first time she was struck by the man's height. He nearly loomed over her, but instead of it feeling weird or threatening it felt intimate and slightly overwhelming.

“But you don’t like me… You want me to work for you?” Hermione said in shock. She hadn’t even realized that Severus Snape had become the storekeeper for Tomes and Scrolls.

“With me but yes, I do." He simply said as if it were obvious. Still, Hermione didn't respond, waiting for him to expand. Sighing, Severus crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Hermione overing his hawking nose. "You’re the only person in the world I could trust to work as hard as myself and I know about your affinity for reading so it seems like the most obvious decision,” he shrugged as if he wasn’t offering one third of the Golden Trio a job. “Besides, I don’t dislike you."

Enough said, apparently. This was easily the longest conversation Hermione had ever had with Severus Snape and it was clear he was getting sick of talking.

Hermione knew she had several months of boredom ahead of her until her eighth year begun but could she really look a gift-horse in the month and work with the somewhat-still-reviled-though-not-reviled-by-her Severus Snape.

“Ok! Yes, I want the job,” Hermione barely finished her sentence before Severus greeted her with the most confusing smirk.

“Wonderful,” Severus said as though he had just caught her in a deal with the devil.

And suddenly, Hermione knew that the rest of her summer would be anything but boring.


	2. Noticing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus Snape begins to notice Hermione Granger is more than a former student -- she's a woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! What a wonderful day it is here in the States! 
> 
> \-- Disclaimer: None of the characters nor any other features of this story are that of my own. Simply borrowing them for a short fanfiction. --

This was not what Hermione had expected when she accepted Severus Snape’s offer a job.

The night Hermione had taken the job, she romantically thought it would be something like a muggle film in which the shopkeeper allowed his employee to dust the books, read and interact with the coming and going customers.

What she got was an entirely different matter. On her first day no less!

Hermione was in the middle of lugging, and wheezing over, the newest order without a single glimpse of Severus since she got into the back office. The only sign that he had ever been there at all was a thorough note detailing her tasks for the morning and a short quip that he would be back at noon.

_P.S. Try to limit your use of magic as it will affect the books._

No thank you, no please, and not an ounce of appreciation.

It was almost like a proper detention all over again. Worse even as some of the tomes were large enough that she had to really use her back to lift them. The only spot of sunshine was that Hermione had been able to read some of the books as she went along, being careful not to waste too long in doing so.

Time flew as Hermione pulled out a small Bluetooth speaker that she, with the help of Arthur Weasley, had managed to make magic compliant. She played some soft rock and blues over the speaker and danced about as she began to sweep the floor of all that dust and debris that had unloosened while she stacked books near their proper shelves.

For the nth time that morning her hair felt out of its bun and Hermione thought about turning her wand on herself and just chopping loose her hair. Instead, she tied her hair around her wand and decided to make a bonnet for herself. Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a hair scrunchy and transformed it into a bandana. She tied her hair back and covered it with the bandana as best she could with coils springing loose around her ears and the top of her scalp.

“Good, now I can focus on more than just my hair,” she whispered to herself and grabbed the broom again.

So busy she was heaving the last of the tomes into the front of the store to begin organizing them, she hadn’t heard Severus return.

Hermione was musing to herself under her breath that this was the point of brooms, not flying upon them and Severus was watching with curious amusement.

Severus had some dealings with other vendors early that morning as he wanted to expand the shop to include a small café and nook, much like the muggles were fond of as Hogsmeade was lacking on such appealing spaces.

He had made the list this morning not imagining that Hermione would turn his shop into something out of the film Matilda. His eyes followed the gliding movement of her hips as she danced with the broom around the shop and set about watering the plants with a flick of her wrist. All the while she created an enchanting scene, hair breaking free of her make-do bands with the ferocity with which she bounced her head.

Severus was so mesmerized that for a moment he let himself wonder when the hell Granger grew a pair of hips _like that_. He ran a finger over his bottom lip and shook his head, literally, to shake away those disconcerting thoughts.

_“It will not do to think about her like that. It’s Granger of all people,”_ Severus chided himself mentally before he cleared his throat to make his presence known. The young woman had been a former student of his and it would not do for him to get involved with her as he imagined she would be quite impressionable.

Hermione jumped and squeaked, letting the broom fall out her grasp as she reached to grab at her heart as though she could catch it before it left her chest.

“Merlin! Mr. Snape! When did you get here?” She asked, reaching for both the broom that had clattered to the floor and the Bluetooth speaker that she had sat near the till.

She could feel his gaze staring in the back of her skull as she fumbled with the speaker and then remembered she needed her wand to quiet it. “My wand, my wand, my wand,” she muttered to herself as she moved around the till to see if she had placed it behind the counter.

The longer he failed to reply, the more nervous she got in his presence and the more she fumbled to figure out where on earth she had placed her wand. It would not do for her to analyze why the man was turning her into a bumbling mess.

“ _Nope, mustn’t do that_ ,” she reminded herself as she let her sight briefly fall upon him. “ _It’s just Professor Snape… He’s just a man. Oh… Shit._ ” Hermione made a quick peek over her shoulder as the song switched to Donovan’s “Catch the Wind”.

Today, Severus appeared in the same fitting black slacks, but he had a dark burgundy shirt on with the sleeves all the way rolled down. It was a striking colour against his pallor and Hermione had to gulp down what felt like a dry ball stuck in her throat. He had never appeared quite so… healthy… at Hogwarts and it was starting to become strikingly clear that whatever was going on in his post-Hogwarts life was very good for him.

  
“Ms. Granger…” Severus began and then thought better of it. He operated on less is more for a reason.

Moving towards her, he reached behind her head and plucked her wand from the bun causing her hair to fall to her shoulders. He watched her golden-brown curls make their home around her shoulders and damned himself for being so free with her person.

“ _Should’ve let her find her wand herself,_ ” Severus told himself. He wasn’t quite sure why he felt the need to be so loose with her, but there was something about her flighty nature inside the bookshelf that he found quite precious. It was a high change from her usual snooty behavior inside the halls of Hogwarts.

Since his recovery, Severus had taken a new lease on life. He was tired of being tired and angry and bleak. It took a lot of energy to maintain that default miserable nature and he simply no longer had the disposition to pretend as though he hated every and anything. Oh, he still disliked most things and had no time for Dunderheads but since he had left Hogwarts, he had the freedom to be who he wanted to be. There was no Dark Lord or dip-headed students. Just life as it were and he would take if exactly that.

“Oh! I forgot I put it there… I’m sorry, I was just beginning the rest of the tasks you set me.” Hermione’s face bloomed a soft pink as she grasped at her wand and shoved it back into its waist holster. Of course, she would forget she put it in her hair. In front of him, he probably thought she was a ninny.

Severus, of course, thought no such thing but found the way she was blushing quite striking. He chalked it up to embarrassment and decided to let the moment, not recognizing it as one, pass. He waved his hand as if to wave off her statement and then turned to double check the notepad he left beside the till. 

Meanwhile, with a flick of her wand she muted the Bluetooth speaker, knowing that he would later ask her about it.

“No, let it keep playing. Just turn the volume down,” Severus stated. “Please.” He added as an afterthought. He might not be ever angry, but he wasn’t either used to speaking to anyone this much or adding pleasantries. Most of the staff at Hogwarts either left him alone or was so used to him that they didn’t blink around his gruff nature.

The song moved onto “Barabajagal” and the crooning of Donovan’s voice made Hermione naturally begin to sway. “I love this song!” She couldn’t resist sharing with Severus, which made him smirk once again. He knew the song quite well since he had grown up with it.

Astonished, Hermione unmuted the speaker and went to the stack of books she had lugged into the front room.

“How was your morning, Sir?” She asked. Hermione made an effort not to check out Severus again so she started to sort the books and move them to the shelves for which they belonged.

“Long. It’s amazing the Wizarding world has amounted any success with the amount of Dunderheads bumbling around.” He gruffed as he moved towards her and began to help. He knew that there was no way she would complete every task that he set to her and he was fine with helping out here and there as he had the time.

Hermione let out a tinkling giggle at what he said as she passed him one of the tomes that required height to be placed on one of the higher shelves. She had always liked Severus' dry sense of humor -- he was funny without even meaning to be. Severus was glad his back was facing her, because he liked the sound of her giggling at his statement so much that he grinned to himself.

They worked together in that fashion for some time, listening to the tunes of Donovan, and just letting time tick away. It ticked away so much that soon the lunch hour had long passed, and Hermione’s stomach grumbled. Loudly. Embarrassed, she sheepishly looked at Severus and then to the dwindled number of books left to sort.

“Would you like to grab some lunch, Hermione?” Severus asked, not bothering to embarrass her as stomachs were want to grumble when they did. Besides, it was his fault she had worked so long into the day that they had missed lunch. He had simply enjoy the small luxury of working with someone who valued good music and silence.

“Yes please! Is there anything you would like me to bring you,” she asked as she went to grab her cardigan from the back room.

“Actually, I figured we could go together… I have a proposal for you,” Severus said as he walked back to the other room so as not to shout.

“Oh… Well then sure, I would love to grab lunch with you,” Hermione said before realizing how much that sounded like a date. _“It’s just a business lunch, just a business lunch…”_

**_As it turned out, it would not be just a business lunch._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is beginning to flesh out more for me. It all began with a dream and a slight direction but now I'm beginning to get a great grasp one how I want this to develop. If you guys want to share any thoughts, ideas, etc. feel free to DM or to comment! I love hearing from fellow readers/writers!

**Author's Note:**

> So... What do you think? I'm rusty and it's been quite a while since I've written anything quite like this.


End file.
